Crime & Safety

Burnsville Man Allegedly Tells Police He Broke Into Woman's Home Out of Love

Daniel James Trucker is charged with first-degree burglary and car theft after police say he broke into the Lakeville woman's home and refused to leave for more than four hours.

A Burnsville man has been charged with breaking into a Lakeville woman’s house and refusing to leave, taking the woman’s car and cell phone and preventing her from leaving.

Daniel James Trucker, 45, is charged with two felonies: first-degree burglary, which carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a $35,000 fine, and car theft, which has a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

Trucker also faces misdemeanor charges of violating a protection order and domestic assault, each of which has a maximum penalty of 90 days in jail and a $1,000 fine.

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According to the criminal complaint, police were called to a Lakeville home just before 9 p.m. July 22 when someone called and expressed concern about the resident’s welfare.  

The person who called police said she had received a text message from the victim – who has an active protection order against Trucker – telling her that she needed help because Trucker was at her house and wouldn’t leave.

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The woman who called said the victim wasn’t responding to her attempts to contact her via text message.

Police found the victim at her home, crying. Trucker was also inside the home, and told officers that he knew he wasn’t supposed to be there, but that he loved the victim and was trying to convince her to drop the protection order and get back together with him, the complaint says.

Police searched Trucker and found two pocket knives, along with the victim’s phone.

The victim said that she was at a restaurant near her home at about 4 p.m., when Trucker showed up. She said she argued with him, then left the restaurant and walked home, leaving her car and her car keys at the restaurant.

Trucker drove the victim’s car home and entered the house through the garage door, using the opener in her car, according to the complaint.

The victim said she asked Trucker several times to leave, and that he took her phone away because she had texted a friend to ask for help. Trucker then began texting the woman’s friend in an effort to convince the friend that everything was all right, according to the complaint.

The victim told police that she tried to get away from Trucker several times, but he grabbed her wrist and kept her from leaving. She said she asked Trucker to leave for more than four hours.

Trucker is free on an $80,000 bond. An omnibus hearing in his case is scheduled Oct. 22 in Dakota County District Court in Hastings.


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